Portret van Jan van der Heyden
1734 - 1789
Medium
brush
Dimensions
149; 91
About this artwork
Ontwerp voor een prent.
Art Historical Context
This delicate brush drawing by Jacobus Buys serves as a preparatory design, or “ontwerp,” for a printed portrait of the celebrated Dutch artist and inventor Jan van der Heyden. Created sometime between 1734 and 1789, the small sheet—measuring just 149 by 91 millimeters—captures van der Heyden’s likeness in a compact format suited to reproduction. Buys, a skilled eighteenth-century Dutch draftsman and engraver, worked in an era when printed portraits helped preserve the memory of earlier masters for new generations of collectors and scholars. The brush medium allowed Buys to achieve subtle ton...
About the Artist
Jacobus Buys · 1724–1801
Comment on works: Portraits; History; Genre; Vignettes